Colleges were interested in recruiting Chase Bailey to play football when he was an underclassman at Lee Academy when he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, which is a form of bone cancer.
Bailey’s focus became fighting for his life before dying at age 16 in August 2015, but the way he conducted himself left a long-lasting legacy with family and friends.
One of those friends, Carter Weaver, started an annual lemonade stand when Bailey was sick to raise money for cancer research and children at St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, where Bailey went when he was sick. The lemonade stand has grown into a bake sale and literature about St. Jude is provided and clothes and souvenirs from St. Jude are sold.
The event is during the summer and was by First Presbyterian Day School the first four years. This year, it was across the street from Yazoo Pass.
“I just wanted to start raising money for St. Jude, so they could work on a cure and help out the people like Chase and help the ones in need that have cancer,” Carter said.
Carter Weaver’s mother, Tiffney, estimated more than $5,000 has been raised in the five years the event has taken place. A total of $920 was raised the first year and it has grown each year as $1,779 was raised on Saturday.
Carter, now 14, first met Bailey when he was young and his mom had a daycare in Clarksdale, Tiff’s Kids. Bailey was five years older than Carter and like a big brother. One of Carter’s fondest memories of Bailey occurred when he was a little boy.
“All the boys were at daycare and my dad (Shane) had this playground slide set up,” Carter said. “We all got muddy at the bottom and all started sliding and everything. We just had a good time.”
Carter said Bailey was funny and a good person to hang around. Both attended Oakhurst Baptist Church.
“He was a good Christian,” Carter said. “When he was going through his bone cancer, he wasn’t worried. He impacted a lot of people by his reaction to his cancer and he was very accepting. He was not afraid he was going to pass away.”
Bailey’s mother, Tracey Bailey, said she and her husband, Todd, are humbled by the way the community rallied around them.
“We’re still just amazed at the people that still come together in memory of Chase and just want to do as much as they can for St. Jude,” Tracey said. “I still just get very overwhelmed and emotional at people’s generosity and their remembrance of Chase. We’re just honored when people get together and do things like this.”
Chase’s courage and faith got him through his diagnosis and Tracey plans to continue telling his story and help St. Jude fight cancer.
“People come up to me all the time and tell me the impact he had, just the way he handled his diagnosis and having cancer at a young age,” Tracey said.
Tiffney Weaver worked at First Presbyterian Day School when she lived in Clarksdale but recently moved to Mathison and now works for First United Methodist Church Starkville Weekday Ministries. She will continue to take part in events honoring Bailey.
“I will always come back for Chase. This is in memory of him. For all the kids at St. Jude, that is our fight,” she said. “I will always come back and do our lemonade stand annually.
“When we first started this, it was my son’s idea. We, of course, prayed for him every night when we heard about it. Carter just said, ‘Momma, why don’t we do a lemonade stand for Chase?’ I said, ‘Carter, that is a great idea,’ so we just got together and we did this lemonade stand.”
And that lemonade stand has grown and the community will continue to support St. Jude.
“I think this community is very aware and does so much to help St. Jude,” Shane Weaver said. “There’s been Chase and a few others that have passed away from that disease.”
